Police want to snoop in your e-mail

[carlotta]

THE PROVINCE
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Police want to snoop in your e-mail
Chiefs argue that Criminal Code is badly out of date
By John Bermingham
Staff Reporter

The long arm of the law is reaching into cyberspace.
Canada's police chiefs want Ottawa to revamp the Criminal Code to give Police greater access to the Internet & e-mail so they can intercept crime onthe electronic frontier.
Police want more power - - thru lawful access w/warrants - - to monitor e-mail, web surfing, instant messaging, mobile phones & telephone services that use internet connections.
Edgar MacLeod, chairman of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said yesterday that police are especially concerned about child pornography, exploitation of children, & organized crime.
"This gap in the relationship between the law & the reality of today's technology now poses a v. significant threat to public safety," MacLeod said during a break @the chiefs' annual meeting in Vancouver.
He said police are losing the crime-fighting battle to legislation written in 1974 when the rotary-dial phone was still in use.
"Since then the technology has advanced while the police ability to keep up has not kept pace," Edgar said.
MacLeod said police wouldn't go on fishing expeditions, but would only pursue information spelled out in a court order.
But privacy groups said giving police such powers would raise the spectre of electronic surveilance of the public.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association said the Internet & e-mail contains "sensitive & private" information, & that people using the Internet have the right to privacy under the Charter of Rights & Freedoms.
"It's information that's deserving of the highest level of protection," said BCCLA policy director Murray Mollard.
Darrell Evans, executive director of the Freedom of Information & Privacy Association, said police would only need minimal grounds to conduct a broadly sweeping investigation.
"They could subject anyone to surveillance," he said. "Y'know they are going to use it to the maximum. Our civil liberties are definitely taking a blow."
A Toronto-based national group known as Privateer said police & the federal government must make the case to the public that cyber crime is increasing & that changes to the laws are needed.
"It doesn't mean that the old laws are bad," said Robert Guerra, managing director of Privateer, which describes itself as a coalition of computer professionals & human-rights organizations. "It means police & authorities have to go thru just cause for them to prove to a judge tha they can intercept communication."

WHAT DO YOU THINK? you can give your comments to THE PROVINCE by phone @604-605-2029 or email provletters@png.canwest.com or fax 604-605-2099 Be sure to give your first & last names & give your home town.

WHAT DO YOU THINK???? Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii on my emails... What is next? A rating of emails??? Mine of late??? Rated zzzzzzzzzzz hahahaha

Carlotta
hotcarlotta@yahoo.com
i have sessions, extended, available tonight... extended at no extras to you, just in celebration that the SUN is back!!!! email for further details...

 

[LonelyGhost]

there are other ways to fight this type of crime but asking for a blanket 'read everyone's mail' isn't going to get my support.

the police should have the power to bust ANY server that hosts kiddie porn sites, and should have the right to use whatever means possible to find out who is posting such filth ... and they should have the right to demand access to anyone's e-mail who does sign up for kiddie porn because the right to privacy just when out the window when they broke the law.

oh, they should ask for better punishments too ... starting with castration for first offenses ...

then get nasty with those mf's!!!

 

[tongue]

Terrorist escort.

Yes these things always start off as let us snoop on e-mail to protect the country against Muslim terrorists, but the police always end up spending more time looking at escorts e-mail instead.
Do you know how hard and expensive it is to catch a high ranking Muslim terrorist?
Do you know how hard it is to catch a SP? Not that hard, but their e-mail is in English and more interesting.

 

[wolverine]

If you are discussing a sexual transaction with an SP via email, it's not illegal is it? I would think 'no' since you are not really communicating publicly (although using your work email would be against company policy), but please school me if I'm wrong.

 

[magician]

Shit, maybe we need to start encrypting our e-mails.

 

[rickoshadows]

We could alwas forward every fricken spam e-mail on to them.

rickoshadows

 

[SexMachineGun]

does anyone remember seeing the news when the Richmond RCMP spent nearly $300 000 on all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to catch Street racers and find illegaly modified cars. and if u read the motor vehicle act start to finish basically 95% of all modifications we see on street cars today are either completely street legal or fall into a grey area where there is no written law against having it.

and its been nearly 1 year and have they caught anyone with those high tech toys they wasted our tax dollars on? no u can drive through richmond on a daily basis and you will plainly see that nothing has changed.

the cops spend more time trying to gain more power that they can abuse, harassing innocent people in parking lots, filling their ticket quota for the month by setting up speed traps ( they say they dont have one. but we all know otherwise ), and flashing their lights to cross red lights.

i read somewhere ..

Police in the US Serve and Protect. Canadian RCMP just watch and babysit.

 

[niteowl]

Why not? Let the police snoop through emails. It's not like there are people on the streets breaking the law. Didn't the VPD send 10 undercover LE to The 5 two years ago to see if they were breaking any Liquor Laws?

I will will once again feel safe in the streets know that police are monitoring email instead of patrolling the streets. Just like I feel safer after what they did to The Five.

If they are allow to look at our email, they we are another step closer to being a Communist country. Seeing as how tobacco and alcohol ad is banned since, according to Ottawa , influences people to buy it.

So even though I deny it, Ottawa says I drink Molson's because I watch the Indy, I use to smoke DuMaurier because I went to a couple of Jazz venues, I use to smoke Benson and Hedges because I watched the fireworks.

Boy I'm glad they are doing this. Since I was on the road to self-destruction. I guess I should thank them for saving my life?

 

[brianwarner]

Before cops can go into your home/business or any private area, including your emails, they need to apply to the courts for probable cause of a crime being committed. Now the police chief wants to "update old laws to keep up with technology" is just a way to open a channel to do away with applying for probable cause from the courts. And to top it off, I heard that they want all citizens to pay a $0.25 surcharge on their internet connections to pay for increased surveillance. Of course, they will use fear factor buzz words like "terrorism" or "child porn" to scare citizens into supporting them. But is terrorism and child porn so widespread among citizens to justify eliminating everyone's right to privacy?

Just goes to show, blatantly, how the police have total contempt for the law and the rights, under law, of privacy of citizens. The law does not need changing - the principle of the law is that you must show probable cause before eliminating a guarantee of privacey to every citizen under law. Whether its the telephone, cell phone, or internet, how does that change the principle under which the law was established? The police would rather the law not get in the way of expanding their powers. Sounds too similar to the behaviour of organized crime.

I read that in Winnipeg they are video taping men who cruise for prostitutes and posting it on a website. Even if those very same men weren't actually cruising, but perhaps lived in the area or just driving by or circling for some legitimate reason. And the cops are getting away with posting these videos on the internet. Wow, what a total violation of the guaranteed rights of a citizen for privacy and freedom of mobility, as under our Charter.

I hope our Privacy Commisioner would grow some teeth and battle these things. Too bad the last PC was embroilled in fraud... what an idiot.